I Just Got Pirated. Now What?

I've redacted the person's username, under "about the author", because as far as I'm concerned, this isn't about demonizing an individual. It's about a larger issue.

In the open seas of Digital Media and the ability to self-publish, there are dangers–shoals, shallows, and hazards around the low barrier to entry. And then, there are pirates.

What would/do you do when you learn your work has been pirated?

(And yes, I’m actually asking and want to know what you think. This article isn’t a “how to deal with pirates” piece. I don’t know how. I want to hear your thoughts.)

The Background

I suspect most writers/creators out there have similar stories of hard work, scarce time, and writing/editing squeezed in whenever possible, over the long haul–4 years, in my case. This is mine:

I had the idea for Konstantin’s Gifts years ago. It arose from the notion of a man of science (based on the historical figure of Prokudin-Gorskii), traveling in a land of superstition, taking photographs that must have seemed magical in the more rural areas. As part of his entourage, this man travelled with creatures of folklore: a werewolf named Vlad, a vampire named Peter (this was my own, private joke: a werewolf named Peter would conflate the Russian “Peter and the Wolf” into one person, which I thought was funny, but maybe too obvious, so I switched it–the vampire name, Vlad, went to the wolf and Peter became the vampire), and a rusalka (a siren figure from Slavic mythology). The man of science believed that these “conditions” were all derived from viruses–diseases that could be cured. And that was the kernel of an idea that became Konstantin’s Gifts.

In part out of interest, and in part in order to research this novel, I re-enrolled in University and studied Russian History. I planned. And then I started writing. Over the past several years of law school, amid crazy schedules and commitments, I spent any little pocket of time I could find, working and revising this book. And finally, I did a “soft launch” (as I saw it called somewhere) on January 12th, on Amazon.*

Pirates!

January 20-21st, I tried a free promotion and had a few downloads as a result (reports forthcoming). On January 24th, the book apparently was uploaded by someone onto an “upload your original content onto this site” place–though unlike Wattpad, where much of the stuff seems to actually be original content, this site pretty much looks to be a piracy clearinghouse. Certainly the person who uploaded my book and has ~300+ other works up there, makes no pretence of uploading her own stuff that I can tell. All the books under her account (at least at a cursory glance) were by other people.

Including mine. With the cover art that I commissioned from the artist, and paid to license/use–with money I don’t really have (law school debt, babay! And i just got another $3000 invoice today for the bar exams I’ll be writing this summer, cause they like to gouge us on this stuff).

Now, to put this into further context, while I’ve had a few sales (which is just *so* exciting! I mean seriously!!), I haven’t yet made back even the cost of the cover art license, leave alone any of my other expenses on this book (not to mention the investment of years of time and effort). And of course, as a self-publisher, that’s all out of pocket.

My husband was totally outraged when I told him. I mean, seriously furious. He’s seen how hard I’ve worked to get this book finished and to publish it and he was just enraged that someone would do this. As for me–I’m more… ambivalent.

I also feel a bit blindsided. I naively thought people only bothered to pirate famous authors–and I’m not self-deluded enough to imagine that I’m there yet. So–I guess I was wrong. Anyone can be pirated, even if we’re indie authors, full-time students, deep in debt, who’ve paid for it all out of pocket, and most people don’t know us from Adam.

I’ll also say that it rankles to see her username under “about the author” on the account listing (since it’s supposedly an “upload your own stuff” site, any uploads are attributed to the user). I worked so hard on this book, and to see it as being “by” someone else, even just as a non-customizable part of the account setup, really felt like a blow to me. But clearly, this isn’t about trying to pass the book off as her own. She has my cover up there, and that’s got me listed as the author. She also has the author attribution in the description along with the cut and pasted back cover copy for the book from the Amazon site.

So now, I’m faced with the question: what to do?

Now, I think this is an important thing to clarify: as mentioned above, I really don’t want to demonize this person (which is why I haven’t linked to her account). On the one hand, it *is* piracy, but on the other, this is a more complex question than it used to be. It’s not about her as an individual, ultimately. It’s about the larger issue.

See, pirates these days are readers (or music lovers, film lovers, etc.). So, just as I’m not some wealthy and faceless corporation, the typical pirate is not (necessarily) some nasty, evil profiteer and thief. Sure, they obviously get a thrill out of putting the books out there for free and stickin’ it to the man (even if the man in this case happens to actually be me and other writers like me), but this is a free site–so no profits. Plus, it seems pretty clear that many pirates–including this woman–love books.

That’s the new face of piracy, these days: book lovers who either thoughtlessly or intentionally want to spread the joy by distributing the object of their love, despite a legal regime that says they can’t. Some presumably love the reputation they get, either as discerning readers, or just as someone who has lots of awesome free books for their followers, who no doubt are very appreciative.

So basically, she’s reaching my *audience* with her pirated copy of my book. She’s maybe reached some people who’d never have found out that I even existed. Maybe also some people who can’t afford to buy the book. Plus, of course, people who *wouldn’t* buy the book because they only ever download free stuff.

But yes–she has also probably reached a few people who would pay for it, if it weren’t free and so dang easy to get at. And it is easy. After all this hard work, it does kind of break my heart to see how high up on the google search this free copy of my book happens to be.

My take on the two sides of the issue:

Why I should just let it go and not report her:

Piracy is here to stay–it’s too easy to digitally copy books and make them available, no matter the DRM (and I don’t use DRM). We need a better system that encourages legitimate use and makes it easier for people to download legitimately and compensate creators. Otherwise, it’s like a multi-headed hydra–chop off one head, and several more grow in its place.

Given that piracy is going to happen sooner or later, maybe it’s better to appeal to people’s conscience: insert a note (which I forgot to do when I uploaded to Amazon) at the beginning or end of the book, asking readers to please buy a copy if they liked it and pointing out the amount of work I put in, and that the publication etc. was all out of pocket for me.

Do I really want to spend time and energy hunting down pirates when both t&e are scarce commodities in my life? I’d probably be far happier using them in the service of working on other books instead. I love writing. I don’t particularly enjoy hunting pirates, telling them to take stuff down and feeling embittered, pissed off and Grinch-y. So I know the answer to which of those two courses of action would make me happier.

I may find a few new readers—people who might be willing to show their support, if not with this book, then with the next book I write.

Why I should report it:

I put a lot of work–and creativity–into this book. Blood, sweat, tears–the whole nine yards. It’s hard not to feel hurt, personally, by such an act–even though I know it’s not even remotely personal.

I’d really like to make back the cost of my monetary investment at least–and preferably more than that. A bit of income would really really be welcome right now. Plus, it would be a nice recognition of all the work and thought and craft I’ve put into the book over the years. This is undercutting that. Potentially big time.

If I want to give it away for free, shouldn’t the where’s and when’s of it be my choice?

Legally, I have copyright in the book. The work is my property–and this distribution of it is infringing on my rights (in violation of the Bern Convention, an international treaty on copyright. The infringer is located in a signatory country).

As mentioned above, it rankles to see this other person, who is infringing on my copyright, listed as the creator–anywhere (even if that’s not something she did intentionally).

So. What would you do? Lodge a complaint and issue a takedown, or just let it go? And why?

*I’ve blogged elsewhere about my ambivalence about KDP direct. But, after I uploaded KG to Amazon, my anal self decided I wanted to do one more pass before releasing it on Smashwords and in print. I also realised that with my current workload this would not happen until April. I was curious to experiment with how KDP affected a Fantasy-genre work, in comparison to a Romance work. So, I figured, I’ll enroll KG for one term and experiment with my two different genres, then blog about the results. Experiments still underway, but I will be reporting my results in April (or that’s the plan, at least!).

UPDATE as of Feb. 3, 2012: I posted a note on the wall of her account, explaining my situation (student, debt, self-publishing, NOT rich, etc.), and asking her to please take down the book. By evening of the same day that I posted the note, she took down the file.

Thanks everyone for your support and your comments! I’d still be curious to know what future readers/writers who are stopping by think of the piracy issue and how to deal with it.

Also: if you’re someone who uploads copyrighted content and redistributes it for free, I’d really & genuinely be interested in hearing what your justifications are for it. To clarify: I think I get why people DOWNLOAD the work. But what drives you to break the copyright and UPLOAD it, esp. if the upload is just on a free, filesharing site?

I invite you to comment, or to get in touch with me about doing an interview or a guest blog. I would be willing to publish your comments under a pseudonym, if that is your preference. If you’re interested, feel free to drop me a line, using the email address listed under my contact info.

Basically, I’d be interested in:
1) why you do it, even though you presumably know it’s illegal. What makes it worthwhile to break the law for this, esp. given that you’re distributing, not downloading, so presumably it’s not just simply “free stuff”?

2) whether, beyond what the law says, you think creators, as a result of the hard work, creativity, and craft that they have put into their works, have some “moral right” to be able to decide how their work is to be distributed (i.e. sale, give it away, license it to someone else to sell or not). If you don’t think this gives a creator a certain set of “it’s just the right thing to do” moral rights (so not the legal term of art) over their work, what is your rationale in saying the hard work/creativity etc. doesn’t matter? If you do think this gives the creator that moral right how do you reconcile that with your breaking copyright and enabling the redistribution of their work?

3) are there other ways that you justify it? What makes it okay for you to do this? Or, do you think it’s not okay, but do it anyway–in which case, what does motivate you (acquisition of friends and admirers; cachet, etc.)?

I’m trying to understand what it is that motivates people who upload works.

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29 thoughts on “I Just Got Pirated. Now What?”

Sorry to hear that Kat – that’s definitely upsetting! It’s understandable you don’t want to exhaust your limited time and energy in any potentially draining crusade.

It’s also a great issue to bring up in this damn digital age.

1) Have you tried to contact this person and reason with them? I would ask them to remove your book. And to reflect on what they are doing. I would try that first.

2) If you try, and no dice – you might try to contact the site owner or ISP and tell them what’s going on. Tell them you have a good lawyer in the family!

3) Out them. And let the writers take up your cause as their own. If they see this injustice could easily happen to them (or has), they might.

I wouldn’t give someone a free pass because they might help by spreading your book around. Passing out free copies might be a strategy, but it is a decision this person took out of your hands.

And as for going easy on her because she’s a book lover, this individual can hardly be appreciative of books or literature when they show such a lack of respect & consideration to writers and their hard work. Kindle books are cheap, there’s no excuse for ripping off authors – especially those who have not found fame and fortune.

Actually, a couple of weeks ago, I was informed someone was impersonating me on a website even repeating my unique and timely content. I asked the ne’er-do-wells to cease. But they laughed it off. I googled the domain, found the owner, contacted him politely and he put an end to the activity promptly. I was expecting a fight – but the owner was really nice and understanding. So I hope you’ll have good luck going this route as well.

Hopefully, people like this will change and will help others to change as they become more educated.

Nicholas, great minds think alike. I had been considering the “send her a note” approach myself, as a first step, when your comment came in! I’ve done that now and am debating next steps.

BTW, I’m horrified that someone was impersonating you and passing off your content as their own. You’ve worked so long on building up your name and reputation. I’m glad it was resolved–you tried the direct approach and it didn’t work, so you took the next steps. Totally reasonable.

You’re right, re kindle books being not too expensive. I think on the user end, there’s still the “big corporations” perception. I notice most of her other books seem to be professionally published books (and some are by big names like Simon & Shuster), so maybe that’s part of the problem. Of course, to say “I’m different–I’m the little guy” (which is true) is to muddy the issue of piracy itself–but I guess that’s part of the way users distinguish often (will buy indie stuff, but do illegit downloads of the big pub stuff).

Ease of purchase: could Amazon possibly make it any easier to buy the book? What about when it shows up in the iBookstore? I think personally mailing people a copy of the book, unsolicited, is possibly the only easier way for people to acquire it.

Inserting a note can still be done; it’s not an either-or situation. Same thing with giving the book away for free: if that will give you publicity, then you can always do that on your own terms, with people coming to your own website.

And it will always be up to property owners to police their property. Unless you hire someone to do it for you (e.g. a security guard at a mall), the onus is always on you to invoke law enforcement. It is entirely up to you to what lengths to go: a DMCA letter is pretty easy to write.

The music industry (to which some analogize) is a different beast: revenue sources are myriad there, and free downloads can spur merch or ticket sales. There isn’t really that option here.

There’s the question of “try before you buy,” but Amazon gives you a long preview to read without paying.

There’s also the question of whether everyone can afford to read your book, and why should the poor have to pay for it, to which I say: there is plenty of free fiction on the internet. If you want this particular book, you will have to shell out all of $3.99.

It’s possible that the uploader is a 13-year-old, on the cusp of understanding just how wrong and troubling his/her actions are. Nic’s first suggestion speaks to that. And if that doesn’t work, smack ’em with a DMCA take-down.

Hallo Tom! Thanks for commenting! I do see your points. You’re right. Amazon is about it. 1-click buy couldn’t be easier. And ditto for your other points. The one thing I would respond to is that yes, the music industry is different because of its tie-ins. But for books, it’s a matter of backlist. If people like one book and become a fan, maybe they’ll like other books. Gibson (I believe) did write eloquently about how when he got pirated, his sales went up. People end up buying his books anyway because they become fans. Same rationale for libraries. Some people will always and only ever go to libraries. That’s it. But others, having discovered an author via the “free” library option, will purchase subsequent books. It seems counter-intuitive, but also seems to be borne out. Sure, many won’t, but some will.

I’m not seeing that blip up in sales, of course (alas), but maybe it’s just because I’m too obscure, or because the sample size is too small…

Now, another part of me admittedly thinks: I own the rights to this book. I should exercise them. Because she’s using my book illegitimately–she has no rights around that use… It’s WRONG, at both the moral level (I’m the one who put the work into creating this book, AND I’m the one who fronted the money to get the book out there. She did nothing), and of course, legally (copyright and IP law. Plus maybe a small claim about passing off, since she’s uploading the content to a site that requires she claim all the content is original). The legal part is one thing–nice to have the law on my side, but ironically, because I’ve studied legal regimes and have critiqued many of them, that’s not the compelling authority to me. It’s the moral wrong that really makes this rankle.

You should not only out this person’s user name, you should let people know the site the book is listed on. This is theft, plain and simple, and there’s no reason to go easy on it. You can’t spend your life tracking down such thieves, but when they come to your attention, you should use all the means possible to make it certain they’re known as what they are. Contact the person and let them know they’ve been caught. Contact the site and inform them. Issue a take-down notice. There’s no reason to go easy because the person might be *only* 13. Any 13-year-old who knows enough to claim someone else’s work as their own, in public, knows exactly what they’re doing.

If she doesn’t take down the book, in the wake of my note, I’m definitely contemplating my next steps. Go with the public approach (put out her username, the website and so on, and create a stink–potentially around both her and around the site itself, in order to encourage the platform owners to stick to their stated purpose of being an original content file sharing site, not a piracy site); or with the quiet/private approach of reporting the infringement with a DMCA notice and getting the site admins to take her down? (of course, I think the DMCA is problematic, so that’s one of the reasons I’m reluctant. But I do believe in the importance of (c)) The latter may well result in the disabling of her account, since if the admins look at her account, it will be rapidly obvious that she is NOT Kelly Armstrong, nor is she the rights holder of books published under the Vampire Diaries franchise (etc.).

Thanks for the comments, Catana, Tom, and Nicholas (and I welcome further feedback from other readers).

I signed up for the site this morning, so that I could post a note to the person’s profile. That’s my first step–to appeal to her better nature and see if she’s willing to take down the book on that basis. I also appealed to her followers to consider purchasing a copy.

Part of this is just on the reasoning that when people get mad, they stop listening. If she feels persecuted, she might not “hear” what I’m trying to tell her (i.e. that this affects me, as the creator, personally).

I suspect she’s assuming that we’re all bankrolled by big corporations who won’t even notice. Of course, that’s a false assumption–even corporations are noticing and suffering. And traditionally published authors are just as badly hurt by piracy (arguably, they’re even more hurt, because re-publication depends so much on sales figures on previous books).

But, in my case, instead of getting an advance, I’ve *paid* out of pocket, in the hopes that some people would be willing to pay to purchase a copy of the book. And people have been. But given that there’s been over 100 downloads on her site (it says >100, so I don’t know how much over 100), there’s some possibility that this is indeed cutting into my fledgling numbers.

At any rate, I tried to explain my situation, and all that. I pointed out that I haven’t reported her. I’ve asked her followers to please consider paying for their copies and not to re-publish the book. Maybe I’m too optimistic about humanity, but I’d like to think that will work (and will report back if it does). I will definitely consider which steps to take next, if this doesn’t work (because you’re also right about authors/rights holders needing to self-police about this, ultimately).

I decided to try this approach, because I’ve seen the whole persecution complex play out: someone whose ONLY content is, say, pirated shows, gets taken down by YouTube. The person then signs up under a new account, indignant that all his or her hard work in ripping the files and uploading the files has been destroyed (hah! if that seems hard work, try working for years on a novel, or creating a t.v. show!! :-P). Angry at having been taken down, they give copies of the files to friends/followers, and re-upload it themselves, and suddenly, the hydra has multiple heads rather than one, and everyone involved feels righteous about having defied the establishment and promoted “free speech.”

(this distinguishes from genuine artists/performers who have done covers of songs or other tributes–where it’s also their own work and artistry, not just wholesale copying–and have had their entire account taken down)

I hope your note has some effect, but I seriously doubt that it will. If it was just the one book, it might happen. But with 300 books, the person knows exactly what she’s doing and isn’t likely to stop unless she’s faced with legal action.

Man, I’m sorry Kat! This must be really frustrating! I’m not there yet as I don’t have anything published, so I can’t speak to best practices, but i just wanted to let you know that I sympathized with you and I hope you’re reasoning works. Good luck!

Thanks, Angela! I hope so too. The person is in a different time zone, so it may take a few days–but I’m curious about how she will respond (if she will respond at all)… Though in a case like this, one can assume that silence/inaction/lack of acknowledgement is also a response of sorts…

Is she making profit off this piracy? If so, that’s unconscionable – report her without delay. Regardless, you should contact the site and letting them know that this is happening in their bailiwick. Probably wouldn’t hurt to drop in hints that you’re soon to take the bar exam. 😉

Thanks for commenting, Erin! I don’t believe she’s making money off of it. It looks like free downloads, and the reward she’s getting is “props” from her followers–most of whom evidently love the dark paranormal fantasy stuff. If it were a paid thing, then yes, I’d be acting out *immediately*. I get the sense that this is more a “fans of the genre” sharing site rather than one that’s about profiteering. Like goodreads, except with illegal downloads thrown in.

It wasn’t at all difficult to find the site, doing a Google search. But I don’t see anything about a requirement for content to belong to the user. In fact, there’s nothing about the site at all. Since you intend to contact the user, if that doesn’t work, I would think he next step would be the “report file” option, though I don’t know how that works. If there’s no response of any kind from the user or the site admin, a take-down notice would be the next step. You might have to go as far as finding the site’s domain registrar.

One of the dispiriting things about this is precisely that–how easy it is to find this free download, doing a Google search. It would tempt many a reader, I imagine–even those who would normally pay for their books–into possibly downloading a copy.

It’s true re the lack of clear requirement of original content–the site isn’t very informative in general. There’s a clause in their terms of use/EULA thing that states that the uploader certifies that she/he is the license holder of all content uploaded. I assume–but may be wrong–that there’s also one of those check boxes when people upload actual content to the site (the “in checking this box you are agreeing that you own the rights to all content being uploaded” thing). Those are pretty standard, and a nominal CYA thing undertaken by most websites… But yes, they don’t make it too obvious, do they?! That’s what makes me suspect that it’s basically a site that facilitates piracy by turning a blind eye whenever possible.

UPDATE: She’s taken down the file. Thanks everyone for your support and your comments! I’d still be curious to know what future readers/writers who are stopping by think of the piracy issue and how to deal with it.

Also: if you’re someone who uploads copyrighted content and redistributes it for free, I’d really & genuinely be interested in hearing what your justifications are for it. To clarify: I get why people DOWNLOAD the work. But what drives you to break the copyright and UPLOAD it, esp. if it’s just on a free, filesharing site?

I invite you to comment, or to get in touch with me about doing an interview or a guest blog.

Basically, I’d be interested in:
1) why you do it, even though you presumably know it’s illegal. What makes it worthwhile to break the law for this, esp. given that you’re distributing, not downloading, so presumably it’s not just simply “free stuff”?

2) whether, beyond what the law says, you think creators, as a result of the hard work, creativity, and craft that they have put into their works, have some “moral right” to be able to decide how their work is to be distributed (i.e. sale, give it away, license it to someone else to sell or not). If you don’t think this gives a creator a certain set of “it’s just the right thing to do” moral rights (so not the legal term of art) over their work, what is your rationale in saying the hard work/creativity etc. doesn’t matter? If you do think this gives the creator that moral right how do you reconcile that with your breaking copyright and enabling the redistribution of their work?

3) are there other ways that you justify it? What makes it okay for you to do this? Or, do you think it’s not okay, but do it anyway–in which case, what does motivate you (acquisition of friends and admirers; cachet, etc.)?

I’m trying to understand what it is that motivates people who upload works.

Just like to argue on the opposite side of the question. As an indie author-to-be, I want full distribution of what I write by any means possible, especially if I’m giving it away for free. It’s the name recognition, not the lost “revenue,” that’s important.

The more people that read my words, the better, exponentially over time, regardless if I make money per each. This is Cory Doctorow’s position (or at least my take on it) and I agree with it.

I believe that once you have name recognition, that will give you the platform that your career needs, more than a “per copy” sales approach. So I’d ask that person to put your book back up! But that’s just me. 🙂

Thanks so much for weighing in and voicing this perspective, which for me, is a compelling one.

This perspective that “piracy ultimately leads to sales” on a longer horizon is one that for which I can see validity, and was part of the reason for my ambivalence. I had mentioned in an earlier comment (above) that Gibson wrote eloquently about how piracy led to more sales. Thinking about it after, I realised it was actually Gaiman (and a quick search yielded some links on the subject, including: http://www.switched.com/2011/02/11/neil-gaiman-piracy-leads-to-more-book-sales/). His, Cory Doctorow’s and others’ comments about this definitely contribute to my mixed feelings. Counter-intuitive as it might seem, piracy can often lead to more sales (and if you think about it, it makes sense) because, as you say, you now have more venues at which potential fans can find you.

If I were to try to disentangle my ambivalences when I found out the book had been pirated, I think they would probably resolve into following threads:

1) emotional: she’s listed as the “author” of my book! Noooo! (I was astonished at the strength of my emotional reaction to this, even though I knew that she didn’t have control over this, and it’s clear no-one actually thinks she’s the author of the books she posts. This upset me more than I would have expected–very visceral, esp this first time around. I may grow inured to it if it happens more often in the future.)

2) legal: someone is taking control of my work and its distribution without my permission! How dare they! This is part of *my* bundle of rights. She needs to take it down–and then I can decide if *I* want to distribute this book on this platform, after my exclusive term with Amazon is done and I widen the distribution… But I should be the one deciding that, as well as when–and whether–my book should be free.

3) thoughtful: I’ve had over 100 downloads from her page, and from the looks of this person’s collection, the people who check out her page/uploads are my target audience… Seeing my book… and downloading it… Hmmmm. And also: kinda cool that she thought my book fit in with her collection of often very popular dark fantasy titles.

4) philosophical: the book is out there now. The medium is such that people can and will likely copy it and some will also distribute it widely. This likely won’t be the last time that this happens. I need to decide how I feel about it and what sustainable balance I want to strike between all my conflicting responses to this issue.

Decided:

I don’t plan to “police” piracy in the future by looking for it. I definitely recognize the potential usefulness of it, but also, I’d rather be writing than pirate-hunting, and ultimately, I agree that it might lead to further sales, esp. once I have more of a same-genre backlist.

But, if I stumble upon it (as I did this time), then I think I’d go with a similar approach to what I did this time–trying to contact the pirate, and have some kind of dialogue (*unless* they’re charging money for the book, in which case, I’d initiate takedown proceedings immediately–and likely broadcast the name of the person doing it to as wide a range of people possible, etc.), while also asking that people who downloaded the book consider paying for it if they liked it. In fact, I’m thinking of just inserting a pre-emptive note into the e-book edition, making that suggestion (if you got the book illegally and enjoyed reading it, please consider buying a copy, or purchasing some other title of mine). I truly believe that many people are willing to pay something in appreciation of a work or experience they enjoyed, even if they originally got it for free.

An amazingly thoughtful response to my short comment — thanks for the additional insight on this matter. As for the women not crediting you, that’s above and beyond and I wasn’t aware she did that (I just saw the cover illustrations in the screenshot and assumed you were correctly credited.) That changes things a bit.

I’m glad Neil Gaiman falls on the “share, who cares” side of the equation, it gives me more strength to follow through on my own convictions. However, YOU have really experienced this and can legitimately comment on it. I can only comment from a philosophical perspective. So let’s see how I feel once this has happened to me. 🙂

But for now, I plan to distribute my books in the “share, don’t care” scenario, at least for my first two or three novels, to (I hope) build an audience (a thousand true followers and all that) who MIGHT be willing to pay for the next couple of books.

Wish you well with keeping things in “balance,” in terms of stolen work versus “fame.” Thanks for starting this discussion. It’s brilliant, and one that I have not seen in the blogs I read before this. Sharing up to now has just meant “let anyone who wants to have it, have it,” not “let anyone who wants to steal it and make a profit from my work, have it.”

So, no such thing as bad publicity, I guess, and hope this whole debacle generates some sales.

PS: I think your idea of the preemptive note is genius. Mind if I steal it? 😉

Carl, I wish you the best on your book distribution plan. I have the impression that it has worked spectacularly well, particularly for those writers who are highly prolific (Lizzy Ford comes most readily to mind). If I had more time to write and be prolific, I might be inclined to a similar path, but the most I can seem to manage is maybe a book a year. I’m hoping this will change/increase once school is done–but then again, lawyers at firms don’t have a reputation for keeping 9-5 hours either.

I’m glad you enjoyed the discussion! Two final thoughts on your response:

a) I should clarify that my response re authorial attribution was purely irrational and at an emotional level–just one of those kick in the gut moments: *she* credited me and made every effort to be clear on authorship (both by uploading the cover, and by attributing the book in the description of the story). It was just the platform’s interface, that credited all uploads by a given user to that user as “author”. So on the side of the screen shot, it says “about the author” and then has the woman’s username (which I blanked out). And even knowing, rationally, that she had no control over this, that it was just a function of the UI, AND that no-one was likely to actually assume it was by her, I had an emotional reaction. One of those disjuncts between knowledge and emotion.

b) re the no bad publicity idea–I’d agree that this may be the case in the context of distribution for indie authors with limited resource. Finding our target audience and getting our books into the hands of readers is a *big* challenge and pirates may be allies in this context, depending on your distribution plan. However, once in the hands of readers, if the indie author has jumped the gun and published too soon, the bad publicity of negative reviews, and readers who are irritated (and who never want to read another such book again) can be devastating, and may even require rebranding for some authors–tabula rasa, once the author has further honed his/her skills, or hired editors (etc) for subsequent projects.

I’ll look forward to checking out your book (s)! Are they already released (I wasn’t clear on this from looking at your website??)? Will you be doing a (cc) license? And of course I don’t mind if you go with the preemptive note approach. I think my notion was a variation of what Doctorow does with his books–his note at the front of many of his works, just explaining what he’s doing–his terms of use and why.

After all my big talk, I’m still shopping my ‘first’ novel (actually my, let’s see, fourth I think, but the first that I feel is good enough to be published) the conventional way. In other words, I’m shopping for an agent. I’m upfront about that on my website. My plan is to give the “real” publishers a chance, three months and that’s it. Then my ebook goes up everywhere for free. I’m thinking about April. I’ll send you a link when it’s ready to download! Thanks for the interest and for the great conversation. And best of luck in the legal arena. Writing and law has worked well for many successful authors. When do you make the transition from student to lawyer?

Carl, that’s a good plan. Three months is tight, but agents are usually pretty quick about getting back to people. I know what you mean about previous novels. Even these ones that I’ve self-published were several novels in (4th or 5th, I think). I’ve got a number of older ones sitting and gathering dust because they’d need major repair to be remotely publishable (indeed, it would probably be less work to just take the premises and start from the ground up).

But the whole gatekeeping issue is a concern for me. I recognize that I don’t have the detachment to see the kinds of structural flaws in my own work that seem clear to me in other books (and I don’t simply mean indie books–e.g. Deus Ex Machina in Harry Potter; etc. So many such probs, even in professionally edited books by established authors). I’ve tried to apply that perspective to my own stuff, as it will probably be at least another book or two with reasonable revenue (or maybe a day job–*hope* *hope*) before I can afford to hire an editor for a thorough going-over of the WIPs. I just end up hoping I’ve caught most of the problems…

Please do let me know what happens (whether you become an agented author on the route to conventional pubbing or whether you end up on the independent road)! And if you want to guest blog at the time of the release, feel free to get in touch!

Thanks also for the good wishes! I’m finishing up law school this semester–then it’s on to the bar exam and articling. Should be interesting (and hopefully fun, too–I rather enjoy the labyrinthine and often arcane workings of the law. Kind of fascinating–it is so revealing about the human mind and its workings–and also, often, of cultural history).

Kat: Yes, I feel the same way about my “old” stuff, but if I have any free time I want to devote it to writing something new. In my mind, I picture how I would rewrite each of them, but I don’t see it ever happening. Just, really, too much work to fix all that’s broken.

As for the invite to guest blog, thank you so much! Happy to return the favor any time you want. Would you be interested in an interview on my blog? I read your background and your sample work. You are quite interesting in both who you are and how you write, and what you write about.

I agree with you about the law, as an avid L&O fan (L&O UK, especially) and anything cop/court: Southland, Homicide, Luther. I think it’s very interesting how you have tapped into both sides of the brain here, with law and writing. Yet, I believe the two overlap in many ways, both creative and procedural.

I feel I haven’t addressed half of what you brought up in your original post and in your replies — each paragraph you wrote is a new topic, and would make a great blog post topic on its own.

Best wishes again and hope to run into you at a conference or something sometime (just not in court, tho 😉 where we could have an extended convo about all this and more over a few pints.

I’d love to do an interview on your blog! That would be great fun. And yes, do let me know when it works for you to guest blog/interview here. I’m pretty flexible re timing, so whenever works best for you, exposure or release-wise, is just fine by me!

My email’s writer [dot] katanthony [at] gmail [dot] com. We can work out the deets.

Kat, I’m sorry to hear you’ve been pirated already, and boggled that someone would pick a new indie author rather than a big name. This is a thorny problem with many dimensions, both legal and emotional. You’ve done a good job of separating them out in your post and comments, but of course that doesn’t make them any easier to deal with.

I would love to hear from this person, or anyone else who uploads books. There’s a lot of discussion online around justifications for downloading, often related to DRM and regional limitations. (Though this may be an excuse. It’d be interesting to see how the patterns of downloading change if and when those limitations are removed.) But, like you, I haven’t heard much from the people who are disseminating content they don’t own. I wonder if it’s largely due to the media-driven perception of authors (and, by extension, publishers) as wallowing in money. It’s odd how that persists, given how quickly aspiring authors learn the truth.

Hi Siri! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I think there are some fair justifications (fair use/fair dealing and format shifting among them, IMO) for downloading or bypassing DRM. I’d be curious about any shift in such downloading patterns as well, if we ever get around to amending the laws in a useful way!

But yes, I’m most curious to hear from those who are doing the uploads. My *guess* would be that it has something to do with prestige (who hacks the DRM first in some cases–esp. high demand things like games–and in other cases, just a matter of being the popular kid who has all the awesome books/apps/etc. on their site). But that’s just guessing. I’d love actual corroboration of this from someone who does it, and who maybe hangs out on forums etc. where others do this.

And I think you’re right–there’s also the perception that either a) the publishing houses can afford it (I don’t believe they can, esp. not these days) and the authors don’t see much of that money anyway or b) what you mention–that authors are not merely earning a living wage (ha!) but actually living the high life on what they’re making and can therefore afford to lose a bit of revenue. I hope someone contacts me about this as such a post/interview would be fascinating!

I think there’s a third possibility: the act of copying is often so far removed from any thought of compensation or creation that perhaps the uploader doesn’t even consider the pirated warez as being more than “found goods”. I suspect that in many cases, the social good or “it doesn’t really matter to them” arguments are formulated after the fact. This is probably even more likely if the stolen books/music/movies are taken from another file-sharing site, so that they are already “free”. It also muddies the issue that some creators (legitimately) specifically ask for their own works to be redistributed, so some file-sharers may not see any moral issues in their actions.

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